Double Vision

Double Vision

How and Nosm, graffiti artists and twin brothers raised in Germany, are in their recently-rented studio in the South Bronx -- an austere zone near the intersection of the Grand Concourse and the Major Deegan Expressway, with vast blocks of car-repair shops, warehouses, and vacant lots thick with tall weeds and other objects that may be better left obscured. But on a cool spring afternoon, soaked in sunlight, the studio seems to exist above the fray.

The brothers have just returned from Arizona, where they spent five days in the desert outside Tucson painting a World War II bomber for the Boneyard Project, an upcoming exhibition that also includes artists Retna and Nunca.

“Dirty, hot, sand. Nobody. No man’s land. Just dead planes,” Nosm says. “It’s cool, but I wouldn’t want to be there longer than a week. There’s s*** to do. But it’s a dope project.”

The pair are not exactly identical twins, although both are tall and trim, and they shave their hair into a fine Bruce Willis. Nosm has sharper features and is a bit deliberate in his speech; his brother is the insouciant one.

Asked how they pick projects, How’s face brightens. “Whatever pays the most,” he says, smiling. “No, no, no,” Nosm interjects. “That one wasn’t even paying,” he says about Arizona. “But projects where it’s something new and challenging, or stuff that’s extra big is cool, where you get a lot of exposure.”

“Stuff that nobody else has done,” adds How. “Things that you know are going to lead to something bigger.”

That system seems to be working. In October, they open their first solo show, “Achtung,” at Known Gallery in Los Angeles, which is home to eminent graffiti writers Revok, Saber, and Sever. This is followed by another solo show, this one during Art Basel Week in Miami Beach in December, the annual art fair that attracts collectors from around the world.

The October 2012 issue of Red Bulletin magazine, available on newsstands and the iPad app tomorrow, features music producer Flying Lotus, indie rock band Grizzly Bear, saving lives with skateboarding...